Methods and apparatuses for video and text in communication greetings for the audibly-impaired

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatuses for enabling electronic communication with an audibly-impaired user are disclosed. A communication device receives a call from a video endpoint associated with a calling party, wherein the call is intended for the audibly-impaired user. If the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the call, information is selected from a database with one or more entries associated with the audibly-impaired user. The one or more entries include a video greeting previously recorded by the audibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by the audibly-impaired user. The video greeting and the text greeting are combined as a merged video stream. The merged video stream is then presented on the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/540,961, filed Nov. 13, 2014 (U.S. Pat. No.9,276,971), the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated hereinin its entirety by this reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments discussed herein relate generally to video phonecommunication systems, and more specifically, to methods and apparatusesfor providing customized greeting(s) in communications foraudibly-impaired persons.

BACKGROUND

Traditional communication systems, such as standard and cellulartelephone systems, enable verbal communications between people atdifferent locations. Communication systems for audibly-impairedindividuals (e.g., individuals with hearing impairments, speechimpairments, or a combination thereof) enable non-audiblecommunications. For example, some such communication systems enableaudibly-impaired individuals to communicate using communicationendpoints (e.g., video endpoints, text endpoints, etc.) configured totransmit and receive non-audible communications (e.g., video, text,etc.).

These communication endpoints are sometimes registered with entitiesthat provide services for audibly-impaired users (e.g., communicationsession enabling services, user account information databases, audibleto non-audible communication translation, etc.).

Some communication systems for audibly-impaired people enablecommunications between communication devices for audibly-impaired peopleand communication systems for audibly-capable users (e.g., standardtelephones, cellular telephones, etc.). For example, a Video RelayService (VRS) may provide speech to sign language translation services,and sign language to speech translation services for a communicationsession between a video phone for an audibly-impaired user and atraditional telephone for an audibly-capable user. In other words, theVRS may be used so an audibly-impaired user can carry on conversationswith an audibly-capable person. In such systems, the audibly-impaireduser will use sign language to a translator and the translator willspeak what is signed to the audibly-capable user. In the otherdirection, the translator will listen to the audibly-capable user thensign what was spoken to the audibly-impaired user.

SUMMARY

Embodiments discussed herein include methods and apparatuses thatprovide customized greeting(s) in communications for audibly-impairedusers.

Embodiments of the disclosure include a method for enabling electroniccommunication with an audibly-impaired user. The method includesreceiving a call on a communication device from a video endpointassociated with a calling party, wherein the call is intended for theaudibly-impaired user. The method also includes determining that theaudibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the call. Responsive tothis determination, information is selected from a database with one ormore entries associated with the audibly-impaired user, wherein the oneor more entries include a video greeting previously recorded by theaudibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by theaudibly-impaired user. The video greeting and the text greeting arecombined as a merged video stream and the merged video stream ispresented on the video endpoint associated with the calling party.

Embodiments of the disclosure also include a server at a relay serviceassociated with an audibly-impaired user. The server includes processingcircuitry configured to receive a call from a video endpoint associatedwith a calling party, wherein the call is intended for theaudibly-impaired user. The processing circuitry is also configured todetermine that the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive thecall and select information from a database with one or more entriesassociated with the audibly-impaired user, wherein the one or moreentries include a video greeting previously recorded by theaudibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by theaudibly-impaired user. The processing circuitry is also configured tosend the video greeting to the video endpoint associated with thecalling party and send the text greeting to the video endpointassociated with the calling party.

Embodiments of the disclosure further include a video endpointassociated with an audibly-impaired user. The video endpoint includesprocessing circuitry configured to receive a call from a video endpointassociated with a calling party. The processing circuitry is alsoconfigured to determine that the audibly-impaired user is unavailable toreceive the call and select information from a database with one or moreentries associated with the audibly-impaired user, wherein the one ormore entries include a video greeting previously recorded by theaudibly-impaired user and a text greeting previously entered by theaudibly-impaired user. The processing circuitry is also configured tosend the video greeting to the video endpoint associated with thecalling party and send the text greeting to the video endpointassociated with the calling party.

Embodiments of the disclosure further include a video endpointassociated with an audibly-impaired user. The video endpoint includesprocessing circuitry configured to record an input video greetingincluding gestures from the audibly-impaired user and enable theaudibly-impaired user to enter an input text greeting. The processingcircuitry is also configured to send the video greeting and the textgreeting to a relay service associated with the audibly-impaired user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a conventional audibly-impairedcommunication system.

FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of processing hardware that may beused in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 3A illustrates a simplified block diagram illustrating a relayservice configured for operation with an audibly-impaired communicationsystem and showing a calling process for an audibly-impaired user.

FIG. 3B illustrates a simplified block diagram illustrating the relayservice configured for operation with an audibly-impaired communicationsystem and showing a calling process for multiple audibly-impaired usersusing video endpoints.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are block diagrams illustrating entries in database.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a generalized process for some embodimentsof the disclosure.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show an example user interface for selecting the type ofvideo greeting and text greeting a user would like to create.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show an example user interface for entering a customtext greeting.

FIGS. 9A and 9B show and example user interface for recording a customvideo greeting.

FIG. 10 shows an example user interface showing the combined textgreeting and video greeting.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown byway of illustration specific embodiments in which the disclosure may bepracticed. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail toenable those of ordinary skill in the art to practice the disclosure. Itshould be understood, however, that the detailed description and thespecific examples, while indicating examples of embodiments of thedisclosure, are given by way of illustration only and not by way oflimitation. From this disclosure, various substitutions, modifications,additions rearrangements, or combinations thereof within the scope ofthe disclosure may be made and will become apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art.

In accordance with common practice the various features illustrated inthe drawings may not be drawn to scale. The illustrations presentedherein are not meant to be actual views of any particular method,device, or system, but are merely idealized representations that areemployed to describe various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly,the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily expanded orreduced for clarity. In addition, some of the drawings may be simplifiedfor clarity. Thus, the drawings may not depict all of the components ofa given apparatus (e.g., device) or method. In addition, like referencenumerals may be used to denote like features throughout thespecification and figures.

Information and signals described herein may be represented using any ofa variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data,instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chipsthat may be referenced throughout the above description may berepresented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magneticfields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combinationthereof. Some drawings may illustrate signals as a single signal forclarity of presentation and description. It should be understood by aperson of ordinary skill in the art that the signal may represent a busof signals, wherein the bus may have a variety of bit widths and thepresent embodiments may be implemented on any number of data signalsincluding a single data signal.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm acts described in connection with embodiments disclosed hereinmay be implemented or performed with a computer processor, aspecial-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field ProgrammableGate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein.

A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the computer processor may be any electronic processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine suitable for carrying outprocesses of the disclosure. A processor may also be implemented as acombination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and amicroprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

A general-purpose processor may be part of a general-purpose computer,which should be considered a special purpose computer when configured toexecute instructions (e.g., software code) for carrying out embodimentsof the disclosure. Moreover, when configured according to embodiments ofthe disclosure, such a special-purpose computer improves the function ofa general-purpose computer because, absent the disclosure, thegeneral-purpose computer would not be able to carry out the processes ofthe disclosure. The disclosure also provides meaningful limitations inone or more particular technical environments that go beyond an abstractidea. For example, embodiments of the disclosure provide improvements inthe technical field of recording, storing, and playing video messages aswell as recording, storing, and presenting text messages.

In addition, it is noted that the embodiments may be described in termsof a process that is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, astructure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describeoperational acts as a sequential process, many of these acts can beperformed in another sequence, in parallel, or substantiallyconcurrently. In addition, the order of the acts may be re-arranged. Aprocess may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, asubroutine, a subprogram, etc. Furthermore, the methods disclosed hereinmay be implemented in hardware, software, or both. If implemented insoftware, the functions may be stored or transmitted as one or moreinstructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readablemedia includes both computer storage media and communication mediaincluding any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer programfrom one place to another.

It should be understood that any reference to an element herein using adesignation such as “first,” “second,” and so forth does not limit thequantity or order of those elements, unless such limitation isexplicitly stated. Rather, these designations may be used herein as aconvenient method of distinguishing between two or more elements orinstances of an element. Thus, a reference to first and second elementsdoes not mean that only two elements may be employed there or that thefirst element must precede the second element in some manner. Also,unless stated otherwise a set of elements may comprise one or moreelements.

Elements described herein may include multiple instances of the sameelement. These elements may be generically indicated by a numericaldesignator (e.g. 110) and specifically indicated by the numericalindicator followed by an alphabetic designator (e.g., 110A) or a numericindicator preceded by a “dash” (e.g., 110-1). For ease of following thedescription, for the most part, element number indicators begin with thenumber of the drawing on which the elements are introduced or most fullydiscussed. Thus, for example, element identifiers on a FIG. 1 will bemostly in the numerical format 1xx and elements on a FIG. 4 will bemostly in the numerical format 4xx.

Embodiments discussed herein include methods and apparatuses thatprovide customized greeting(s) in communications for audibly-impairedusers. These customized greeting(s) may include a video message, a textmessage, or a combination thereof.

FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional communication system 100 useful forthe audibly-impaired. The communication system 100 enables anaudibly-impaired user 190 (may also be referred to herein as a deafparty 390) to engage in conversation through the communication system100 with an audibly-capable user 110. The audibly-impaired user 190 mayexhibit varying levels of impairment and may be a voice-capableaudibly-impaired user or a voice-incapable audibly-impaired user. Acommunication session between the users is facilitated through the useof various types of equipment, which may be coupled together using oneor more networks (120, 170), which may include a telephone network suchas the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Alternatively, use ofthe term “telephone network” as used herein also contemplates othernetworks that are compatible and configured to provide communicationsusing digital standards and data packets, an example of which includesVoice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).

To interface an audibly-impaired user into a generally voice-basedcommunication system, interpretive services may be employed allowingaudibly-impaired users to communicate with a translator, such as, forexample, through sign language. One means for relaying the communicativeexpressions of the audibly-impaired user 190 within the communicationsystem 100 incorporates a video phone 192 for capturing and displayingthe communicative expressions exhibited by the audibly-impaired user 190and for displaying interpreted voice information originating from theaudibly-capable user 110. The expressions, such as sign language and/orbody language, may be interpreted or translated by a Video Relay Service(VRS) 150. The audibly-capable user 110 interacts in a conventionalmanner with the VRS 150 through a voice-based dialogue conveyed over aconventional voice phone 112 and occurring between the audibly-impaireduser 190 and a translator at the VRS 150.

FIG. 2 illustrates a computing system 200 for practicing embodiments ofthe disclosure. Computer, computing system, video endpoint, mobiledevice, and server may be used interchangeably herein to indicate asystem for using processing circuitry for practicing some embodiments ofthe disclosure. The processing circuitry may be custom circuitry or maybe configured for executing software programs containing computinginstructions. Thus, the computing system may include one or moreprocessors 210, memory 220, one or more communication elements 250, userinterface elements 230, and storage 240.

As non-limiting examples, the computing system 200 may be a user-typecomputer, a file server, a compute server, a notebook computer, atablet, a handheld device, a mobile device, or other similar computersystem for executing software.

The one or more processors 210 may be configured for executing a widevariety of operating systems and applications including the computinginstructions for carrying out embodiments of the disclosure.

The memory 220 may be used to hold computing instructions, data, andother information for performing a wide variety of tasks includingperforming embodiments of the disclosure. By way of example, and notlimitation, the memory 220 may include Synchronous Random Access Memory(SRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Read-Only Memory (ROM), Flash memory, andthe like.

Information related to the computing system 200 may be presented to, andreceived from, a user with one or more user interface elements. Asnon-limiting examples, the user interface elements may include elementssuch as displays, keyboards, mice, joysticks, haptic devices,microphones, speakers, cameras, and touchscreens. A display on thecomputing system may be configured to present a graphical user interface(GUI) with information about some embodiments of the disclosure, as isexplained below.

The communication elements 250 may be configured for communicating withother devices or communication networks. As non-limiting examples, thecommunication elements 250 may include elements for communicating onwired and wireless communication media, such as for example, serialports, parallel ports, Ethernet connections, universal serial bus (USB)connections IEEE 1394 (“firewire”) connections, Bluetooth wirelessconnections, 802.1 a/b/g/n type wireless connections, and other suitablecommunication interfaces and protocols.

The storage 240 may be used for storing relatively large amounts ofnon-volatile information for use in the computing system 200 and may beconfigured as one or more storage devices. By way of example, and notlimitation, these storage devices may include computer-readable media(CRM). This CRM may include, but is not limited to, magnetic and opticalstorage devices such as disk drives, magnetic tapes, CDs (compactdisks), DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs), and otherequivalent storage devices.

Software processes illustrated herein are intended to illustraterepresentative processes that may be performed by the systemsillustrated herein. Unless specified otherwise, the order in which theprocess acts are described is not intended to be construed as alimitation, and acts described as occurring sequentially may occur in adifferent sequence, or in one or more parallel process streams. It willbe appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that many steps andprocesses may occur in addition to those outlined in flow charts.Furthermore, the processes may be implemented in any suitable hardware,software, firmware, or combinations thereof

When executed as firmware or software, the instructions for performingthe processes may be stored on a computer-readable medium. Acomputer-readable medium includes, but is not limited to, magnetic andoptical storage devices such as disk drives, magnetic tape, CDs (compactdisks), DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs), andsemiconductor devices such as RAM, DRAM, ROM, EPROM, and Flash memory.

By way of non-limiting example, computing instructions for performingthe processes may be stored on the storage 240, transferred to thememory 220 for execution, and executed by the processors 210. Theprocessors 210, when executing computing instructions configured forperforming the processes, constitutes structure for performing theprocesses and can be considered a special-purpose computer when soconfigured. In addition, some or all portions of the processes may beperformed by hardware specifically configured for carrying out theprocesses.

The computing system 200 may be used for the video endpoints, servers,and computers, computing devices, processing devices, and communicationdevices described herein with varying levels of optional components.

Generally, when discussing calls, they are referred to from the deafuser's perspective. Thus, an “incoming call” is from an audibly-capableuser to an audibly-impaired user and an “outgoing call” is from anaudibly-impaired user to an audibly-capable user. Moreover, embodimentsof the disclosures support audibly-impaired user to audibly-impaireduser communications. Thus, an incoming call may be from anaudibly-impaired user and an outgoing call may be to an audibly-impaireduser.

FIG. 3A illustrates a simplified block diagram illustrating a relayservice 350 configured for operation with an audibly-impairedcommunication system and showing a calling process for anaudibly-impaired user 390. The relay service 350 may include a varietyof services such as providing access to, and maintenance of, databases388 associated with the audibly-impaired user. In some embodiments, aVideo Relay Service (VRS) may be included for the audibly-impaired user.Thus, when referring to the relay service 350, it may include serversfor providing access to services and databases 388 for theaudibly-impaired user 390, provide VRS services, or combinations thereofas will be apparent from the context of the discussions below.

The communication system 300 includes one or more audibly-impairedcommunication systems 392 (one system shown in FIG. 3 for clarity), oneor more voice-capable communication systems (312 and 322) and a relayservice 350.

The audibly-capable user 310, 320 may use voice-capable equipment 312,322 to communicate with the relay service 350 through voice-capableconnections 316, 326 to a voice-capable network 302. Theaudibly-impaired user 390 may use the video-capable equipment 392 (alsoreferred to herein as a video endpoint 392) to communicate with therelay service 350 through a video-capable network 370.

As used herein, voice-capable networks 302 and voice-capable equipment312, 322 means networks and equipment that can process, convey,reproduce, or a combination thereof, sounds in the auditory frequenciesas analog signals, digital signals or a combination thereof. Asnon-limiting examples, such equipment includes conventional telephones,conventional cellular telephones, and conventional computers or handhelddevices with microphone and speaker type capabilities. As non-limitingexamples, such networks include a telephone network such as the PublicSwitched Telephone Network (PSTN) and other networks that are compatibleand configured to provide communications using digital standards anddata packets, an example of which includes Voice Over Internet Protocol(VOIP).

As used herein, video-capable networks 370 and video-capable equipment392 means networks and equipment that can process, convey, reproduce, ora combination thereof, multi-frame images. As non-limiting examples,such equipment includes conventional cellular telephones with videocapability, and conventional computers or handheld devices with cameraand display type capabilities. As non-limiting examples, such networksinclude cellular networks, WiFi networks, wide area networks, hard wirednetworks and other private data networks configured to providecommunications using digital standards and data packets. To facilitatethe enhanced bandwidth needs of video phones 392, the video-capablenetwork 370 may be implemented as a high bandwidth network such as aDSL, Cable, Ethernet, or other enhanced-bandwidth networking technology.

Wireless networks may include any network using wireless electromagneticsignals, such as, for example, Wi-Fi, cellular phone networks,bluetooth, Zigbee, and near-field communication, that is capable ofcarrying information including at least audio signals and in someembodiments video signals.

In general, most video-capable networks 370 would be considered to alsobe voice-capable networks 302 and most video-capable equipment 392 wouldalso be considered to be voice-capable equipment 312, 322.

Within the relay service 350, a call distribution system 360 may beincluded to answer calls from audibly-capable users 310, 320 throughcalling connections 316, 326 and route them to translators 330 (only oneshown in FIG. 3 for clarity), place the calls in a queue 368, or providea customized greeting if the audibly-impaired user 390 is not availableto take calls. The incoming calls include a calling connection indicatorsuch as, for example, a telephone number, an Internet Protocol (IP)address, a website address, or other unique indicator that indicates howthe connection is made and from where the connection is made.

The call distribution system 360 may also query a profile system 380 todeteiinine information about the audibly-capable user 310, 320 placingthe call in response to the calling connection indicator. The profilesystem 380 may access a database 400 including contact storage 388 toobtain the information about the user placing the call, such as, forexample one or more customized greetings identified with theaudibly-capable user 310, 320 placing the call, the audibly-impaireduser 390 receiving the call, or a combination thereof. The greetinginformation may be retrieved and sent to the audibly-capable user.

When the audibly-impaired user is not available, the relay service 350may include a customized greeting to be played to a caller in lieu of aconnection to the caller. This customized greeting may include a videogreeting, a text greeting, or a combination thereof, for presentation ona video display of the caller.

As non-limiting examples, if the audibly-capable user 310, 230 were inthe deaf user's contact list 400, the database may include a customgreeting tailored to that specific contact. Otherwise, theaudibly-impaired user 390 may have a default greeting to use in the casewhere the call comes from someone not in the contact list or only thedefault greeting is enabled.

The database 400 maintained at the VRS 350 may be created, modified andupdated by the audibly-impaired user 390 through a network connection394 to the profile system 380 in the relay service 350. This networkconnection 394 may be any suitable network, such as for example theinternet, the voice-capable network 302, or the video-capable network370. The network connection 394 may also include tools such as web pagesfor viewing, updating and managing a phone book (i.e., database 400) byand for the audibly-impaired user 390. This phone book may include toolsfor managing greetings as explained more fully.

FIG. 3B illustrates a simplified block diagram illustrating the relayservice 350 configured for operation with an audibly-impairedcommunication system and showing a calling process for multipleaudibly-impaired users (390A, 390B) using video endpoints (392A, 392B).In this configuration audibly-impaired users (390A, 390B) maycommunicate directly with each other without the need for a translator.In some embodiments, the audibly-impaired user 390A may use the videoendpoint 392A to communicate through the video capable network 370directly with the audibly-impaired user 390B using the video endpoint392B. In some cases, the connection may be made without anycommunication with the relay service 350. In other cases, the relayservice 350 may be included to provide services such as the profilesystem 380 and access to various databases 388, which may include thecontact database 400.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are block diagrams illustrating entries in the contactdatabase 400. In the table of FIG. 4, the database 400 may be thought ofas a contact list or phone book for the audibly-impaired user 390 thatidentifies preferred greetings for the listed contacts. As a result,each audibly-impaired user 390 would have a separate table.

As explained below, the video endpoint 392 may include a keypad,keyboard, or mouse, or other data entry device configured to enable theaudibly-impaired user 390 to initiate a communication session in aconventional manner by entering the telephone number of anaudibly-capable user 310, 320 or audibly-impaired user 390B. Inaddition, the audibly-impaired user 390 may be able to interact with thedatabase 400 using data entry devices on the video endpoint to makechanges to the database 400 through the network connection 394.

The database includes entries 410 for contacts 420 of theaudibly-impaired user 390. Each entry 410 may include a name for thecontact 420, one or more connection indicators 430 for the contact 420,custom text greetings 440 and custom video greetings 450. Of course,other fields (not shown) useful in a phone book type database 400 mayalso be included. Moreover, FIGS. 4 and 5 are simplified diagramsintended to illustrate associations between entries. The databases maybe much more complex with multiple fields and the fields may includelinks to other fields, other entries, other databases, and other files.

When a contact 420 makes a call that is received by the VRS 350, acalling connection indicator indicates the source of the call from thecontact 420 (e.g., the cell phone number for Dad). The profile systemmay be used to correlate the calling connection indicator to anidentified entry 410 (indicated by the dashed line to the entry for Dad)based on the connection indicators 430 associated with the identifiedentry 410.

As non-limiting examples, the connection indicators 430 may includeweb-site addresses associated with the contact 420, Internet Protocol(IP) addresses associated with the contact 420, wireless phone numbersassociated with the contact 420 and wire-line phone number associatedwith the contact 420. A connection indicator 430 uniquely identifies acontact 420 within the database as well as a means of voice-capableconnection 316, 326 (FIG. 3) to the VRS 350, the audibly-impaired user390, and combinations thereof. For example, suppose a calling user makesa call to the audibly-impaired user 390, the calling user can beidentified in the database 400 and a customized greeting for thatcalling user may be presented with the audibly-impaired user 390 isunavailable to take the call. Thus, the customized greeting may includethe text greeting “Hi Dad, can't come to the phone now,” the videogreeting in Video file 2, or a combination thereof. The video in videofile 2 may include a video of the audibly-impaired user 390 gesturing adefault greeting or a specific greeting to “Dad” or any other type ofother video file.

In the table of FIG. 5, the database 400 may be thought of as a listingof non-specific customized greeting for when the audibly-impaired user390 is unavailable. The database includes entries 460 for variousdefault greetings that may be used. For example, the greeting on line 1uses the text greeting “Hi, You've reached John, please leave a message”along with video file 3. Similarly, the greeting on line 2 uses the textgreeting “I am on vacation” along with video file 3. The greeting online 3 uses the text greeting “I am in a meeting from 1 to 2 today”along with video file 4. More generally, the user may configure thedatabase 400 with any number of video greetings and any number of textgreetings. The text greetings and video greetings may then be combinedin various ways depending on who is calling and whether the user wantsto convey information such as, for example, why the user can't answer,where the user is, when the user will be back, etc. Thus, the text andvideo greetings may be customized in various ways for different callersand different situations such as day of the week or time of day.

While the databases 400 is illustrated as being resident on a server ofthe relay service 350, the databases 400 may also be present on one ormore video endpoints 392 associated with the user. Moreover, thesedatabases at various locations may be configured to synchronize andshare entries with each other, either from a user request or in thebackground at various times, which may be defined by the video endpoint392, the relay service 350 or a combination thereof

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a generalized process 600 for someembodiments of the disclosure. Reference may also be made to FIG. 3Athrough FIG. 5 when describing the process 600. At operation 602, theaudibly-impaired user 390 records the video greeting on the videoendpoint 392. This video endpoint may be any suitable device configuredfor recording video and implementing embodiments of the disclosure suchas, for example, a video phone, a computer, a tablet device, or asmartphone.

At operation 604, the video greeting is transmitted to the relay service350 to be stored in the database 400. This transmission may occur by theuser requesting the transfer or it may be performed in the background ata specific event or time, which may be defined by the video endpoint392, the relay service 350, or a combination thereof.

At operation 606, the audibly-impaired user 390 enters a text greetingon the video endpoint 392. This video endpoint may be any suitabledevice configured for enabling a user to enter text and implementingembodiments of the disclosure such as, for example, a video phone, acomputer, a tablet device, or a smartphone.

At operation 604, the text greeting is transmitted to the relay service350 to be stored in the database 400. This transmission may occur by theuser requesting the transfer or it may be performed in the background ata specific event or time, which may be defined by the video endpoint392, the relay service 350, or a combination thereof

While not illustrated, the audibly-impaired user 390 may record a numberof video greetings and enter a number of text greetings. Moreover, thevideo endpoint 392 may include tools for associating the variousgreetings with each other, with specific contacts, and with specificsituations as described above. These various associations may be sent tothe relay service 350 as association indicators.

At any time that the user has recorded a video greeting, entered a textgreeting, and associated them with each other, the user may preview thetext greeting presented as an overlay on the video greeting such thatthe video greeting and text greeting are concurrently merged as a videostream to display to the user.

Sometime later, at operation 610, a calling party places a call to theaudibly-impaired user 390 at a time when the audibly-impaired user 390is not available. The unavailability may be due to a number of differentsituations such as none of the user's video endpoints 392 are connectedto a network, the user has specifically set that the user does not wantto answer calls, or the user fails to answer the call after a predefinedperiod of time. Thus, in some situations, the relay service 350 maydetermine that the audibly-impaired user 390 is unavailable. In othersituations, the video endpoint 392 may determine that theaudibly-impaired user 390 is unavailable.

At operation 612, when it is determined that the audibly-impaired user390 is unavailable, the video greeting is transmitted to the videoendpoint 392 of the caller. This transmission may be performed from therelay service 350 or may be performed directly from the video endpoint392 of the audibly-impaired user 390.

Similarly, at operation 614, when it is determined that theaudibly-impaired user 390 is unavailable, the text greeting istransmitted to the video endpoint 392 of the caller. This transmissionmay be performed from the relay service 350 or may be performed directlyfrom the video endpoint 392 of the audibly-impaired user 390.

At operation 616, the text greeting and the video greeting are combinedby the video endpoint 392 of the caller and presented to the caller withthe text greeting presented as an overlay on the video greeting suchthat the video greeting and text greeting appear as a merged videostream to be displayed on the display of the caller's video endpoint392.

While not illustrated, the merging of the appropriate video greeting andtext greeting may be performed at different times and at differentplaces. As one non-limiting example, the user selected video greetingand text greeting may be combined and stored on the video endpoint 392of the audibly-impaired user 390. In such a situation, the combinedvideo may be sent directly from the video endpoint 392 of theaudibly-impaired user 390 to the video endpoint 392 of the caller. Asanother non-limiting example, the user selected video greeting and textgreeting may be combined and stored on the relay service 350. In such asituation, the combined video may be sent directly from relay service350 to the video endpoint 392 of the caller.

In some embodiments, the audibly-impaired user 390 may have multiplevideo endpoints 392. As a non-limiting example, the audibly-impaireduser 390 may have a video phone at home, a computer at the office, atablet device, and/or a mobile smartphone. Each of these devices may bereached by its own calling connection indicator such as, for example, atelephone number, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a website addressor other unique indicator that indicates how the connection is made andfrom where the connection is made. Moreover, the system may beconfigured such that a group number (i.e., calling connection indicator)may be used to reach the audibly-impaired user 390. In such aconfiguration, when a caller calls the group number, all of the videoendpoints 392 associated with the group may be called in an attempt toreach the audibly-impaired user 390 on one of the devices. Also in thisconfiguration, the audibly-impaired user 390 may create the videogreeting on any of her video endpoints 392, create the text greeting onany of her video endpoints 392, and create the association between avideo greeting and a text greeting on any of her video endpoints 392.Moreover, the association may be configured to be different such thatthe combined text and video that is displayed is one set if the groupnumber is called, and different associations create differentcombinations for the various video endpoints 392 when a specific videoendpoint 392 is called.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show an example user interface for selecting the type ofvideo greeting and text greeting a user would like to create. As shownin FIG. 7A, the user may select a personal greeting (i.e., a videogreeting), a text only greeting, a relay service specific greeting(e.g., Sorenson), or no greeting. Within the personal greeting, the usercan select to record the video greeting or preview the video greeting.FIG. 7B shows a popup illustrating that the user may select that thepersonal greeting should include the video greeting only or shouldinclude a combination of the video greeting and the text greeting.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show an example user interface for entering a customtext greeting. FIG. 8A shows that the user has selected to enter his owntext to customize the text greeting. FIG. 8B shows the text entered bythe user to be used in the text greeting and/or the combination of thevideo greeting and the text greeting.

FIGS. 9A and 9B show and example user interface for recording a customvideo greeting. FIG. 9A shows a video window that is blank and a recordbutton that the user has just selected to begin entering the videogreeting, which may include the user performing gestures to create thegreeting. FIG. 9B shows the video greeting in the video window as it isbeing recorded and a stop button for the user to select to complete thevideo greeting.

FIG. 10 shows an example user interface showing the combined textgreeting and video greeting. In FIG. 10 this is a preview window so theuser can determine if she is happy with the combination of the videogreeting and the text greeting. Once approved, this combination is whatwill be presented on the video endpoint of the calling party.

While certain illustrative embodiments have been described in connectionwith the figures, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize andappreciate that embodiments encompassed by the disclosure are notlimited to those embodiments explicitly shown and described herein.Rather, many additions, deletions, and modifications to the embodimentsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the scope ofembodiments encompassed by the disclosure, such as those hereinafterclaimed, including legal equivalents. In addition, features from onedisclosed embodiment may be combined with features of another disclosedembodiment while still being encompassed within the scope of embodimentsencompassed by the disclosure as contemplated by the inventors.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for customizing greetings for a videocommunication device, the method comprising: determining that anaudibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive an incoming call to afirst video communication device associated with the audibly-impaireduser; querying a database with one or more contact entries for the firstvideo communication device; retrieving a custom video greeting when theconnection indicator for the incoming call corresponds to a contactentry for the video communication device; retrieving a default videogreeting when the connection indicator for the incoming call does notcorrespond to a contact entry for the video communication device; andtransmitting either the custom video greeting or the default videogreeting to a second video communication device associated with acalling party that initiated the incoming call.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the custom video greeting is unique to an individual contactentry of the database.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:retrieving a custom text greeting when the connection indicator for theincoming call corresponds to a contact entry for the video communicationdevice; retrieving a default text greeting when the connection indicatorfor the incoming call does not correspond to a contact entry for thevideo communication device; and transmitting either the custom textgreeting or the default text greeting to the second video communicationdevice associated with a calling party that initiated the incoming call.4. The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting the custom text greetingand the custom video greeting is performed as a merged video stream. 5.The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting the default text greetingand the default video greeting is performed as a merged video stream. 6.The method of claim 3, wherein transmitting the custom text greeting andthe custom video greeting is performed as separate data streams.
 7. Themethod of claim 3, wherein transmitting the default text greeting andthe default video greeting is performed is performed as separate datastreams.
 8. A video relay service comprising: a call distribution systemconfigured to: receive an incoming call directed to an audibly-impaireduser; route the incoming call to a translator associated with the videorelay service responsive to: determining that the audibly-impaired useris available to receive the incoming call and determining that thecalling party is associated with an audibly-capable user; transmit acustom video greeting to the calling party responsive to: determiningthat the audibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the incomingcall; and determining that the calling party is associated with acontact entry of a database, wherein the custom video greeting and thecontact entry are associated with each other in the database; andtransmit a default video greeting responsive to: determining that theaudibly-impaired user is unavailable to receive the incoming call; anddetermining that the calling party is not associated with a contactentry of a database.
 9. The video relay service of claim 8, wherein thedatabase is configured to be created and modified by theaudibly-impaired user through a network connection.
 10. The video relayservice of claim 8, wherein the database is located in a data storagedevice of a server of the video relay service.
 11. The video relayservice of claim 10, wherein a copy of the database is located in thedata storage device of a video communication device associated with theaudibly-impaired user.
 12. The video relay service of claim 8, furthercomprising a profile system configured to correlate a calling connectionindicator received with the incoming call and a connection indicatorthat uniquely identifies a contact within the database.
 13. The videorelay service of claim 8, wherein the call distribution system isfurther configured to transmit a custom text greeting with the customvideo greeting to the calling party.
 14. The video relay service ofclaim 8, wherein the call distribution system is further configured totransmit a default text greeting with the default video greeting to thecalling party.
 15. The video relay service of claim 8, wherein the calldistribution system is further configured to assign a group indicator toa plurality of video communication devices associated with the sameaudibly-impaired user, wherein each video communication device of theplurality also maintains a unique identifier.
 16. The video relayservice of claim 15, wherein custom greetings and default greetingsassociated with the same audibly-impaired user are shared among allvideo communication devices of the plurality that are assigned to agroup indicator.
 17. The video relay service of claim 16, wherein thecall distribution system is configured to transmit a differentcombination of text and video greetings when the incoming call is placedto the group indicator than when the incoming call is placed to one ofthe individual identifiers.
 18. A video communication devicespecifically configured for use by an audibly-impaired user, the videocommunication device comprising: a data storage device; a userinterface; communication elements; and a processor operably coupled withthe data storage device, the user interface, and communication elements,the processor configured to: communicate with a video relay servicethrough the communication elements to establish calls with a far-endvideo communication device with the assistance of a translator withinthe video relay service; and manage a database with contact entriesassociated with custom video greetings that are used when acorresponding contact calls the video communication device while theaudibly-impaired user is unavailable, and at least one default videogreeting that is used when an individual who is not a contact calls thevideo communication device while the audibly-impaired user isunavailable.
 19. The video communication device of claim 18, wherein theprocessor is further configured to generate and display a graphical userinterface on the user interface of the video communication device, thegraphical user interface configured to enable the audibly-impaired userto create the custom video greetings, the at least one default videogreeting, at least one custom text greeting, and at least one defaulttext greeting.
 20. The video communication device of claim 19, whereinthe graphical user interface is further configured to enable theaudibly-impaired user to select from one of a video only customgreeting, a text only custom greeting, or a combined video and textcustom greeting.
 21. The video communication device of claim 19, whereinthe graphical user interface is further configured to enable the user toselect different custom greetings according to different times of day.22. The video communication device of claim 18, wherein the videocommunication device is selected from the group consisting of a videophone, a computer, a notebook device, a tablet device, and a smartphone.